The Problem of Evil for Dummies

First things first, if you struggle with the idea that God is good and yet we live in world plagued by both natural and moral evils, you are NOT a dummy. I was just having fun with the title here–you have seen those books right? Personal Finance for Dummies or Building a Website for Dummiesand many other such helpful topics. The idea behind the dummy books is that they break down a difficult topic in a very simple way. They cut out all the jargon and write in such a way that just about anyone can understand. The problem of evil is a problem for many, but not for God–He has it figured out, but that doesn’t mean that many Christians don’t struggle with it and that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to think Biblically about it. So this post is dedicated to breaking the problem of evil down to simple terms without the typical theological jargon that so often keeps people from understanding the real issues behind it.

There are three basic options for Christians in answering the question, “How can God be good and yet there is evil in the world?” I will give you the three options and point out the inherent problem with each. These three options are as follows:

1. God is just as surprised about evil and sin in the world as we are. Why is that? Because in this position, God does not know the future. God has given man such profound freedom that man can and often does thwart God’s purposes. In this view God created the world good but man decided of his own freewill not to follow after God and so sin came into the world and God had to respond to it just like we do–he did not know before hand that man would choose to sin. So God responds to sin in real-time just like we do.

There are two big problems with this view. First is that it denies God’s holiness. God has no special knowledge, He is perhaps a little bigger than us, but if He didn’t know evil was coming, can we really trust Him? Is such a limited God worth serving? How can we trust that He will keep any of His promises if He does not know the future? The second big problem with this view is that it makes little sense of Scripture. Think of all the thousands of prophecies in Scripture that have been fulfilled–how could this be possible if God doesn’t know the future and we are so free as to be able to thwart God’s purposes?

Ephesians 1:11 says that God “works all things according to the counsel of His will” and Romans 8:28 says God “works all things together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” How could those two verses be true if God doesn’t know the future? Futhermore, Psalm 139 tells us that “before a word is on my tongue, behold O LORD, you know it altogether.” So in short this view makes little sense of Scripture and gives us no reason to trust that God will keep His promises.

2. Position #2: God knew that evil would come into the world but He did not will for it to happen. Because God knew beforehand that evil was going to enter into the world, He planned to fight it and overcome it through the cross of Christ. This view is convenient because it gets God off the hook–He didn’t will evil in any way and praise Him, He has determined to overcome it! Well let’s think this position out a little more. If God knows that something is going to happen and has the ability to stop it and doesn’t, how is He not in some sense willing that thing to happen? Those who hold this position, if they will be consistent, must admit that there is some defect in God’s power at some level. Position #1 is actually more consistent, because God cannot know that something is going to happen and have the power to stop it and be said NOT to have willed the thing to happen. So position #1 is more consistent because they just say God doesn’t have the power to stop it because He doesn’t know the future and has given us such potent freewill.

The two big problems with position #2 are similar to position #1’s problems. First, this position fails to uphold God’s perfect holiness. As I have said position #2 must admit some defect in God’s power or else how could we say God did not will something that He could stop but didn’t (and He knew it was coming beforehand)? Secondly, this position doesn’t compute with Scripture, which testifies that God is all powerful–“if one wished to contend with [God], one could not answer Him once in a thousand times” (Job 9:3; c.f. Romans 9:19-21 and Job 38:1-5). Simply put there are many evil things that happen in the Bible which God speaks to having in some sense willed. Take Job for example. God gave Satan permission to test Job with all sorts of nasty afflictions and set boundaries around what Satan could and couldn’t do (Satan could not take Job’s life). So who is ultimately in control of what is going on with Job? God or Satan? I think the answer is obvious.

3. Position #3: God knew that evil would infiltrate our world and yet He is good and not the author of it, but is sovereignly in control of it. God sovereignly permits sin to occur though He is not the author of it. He could have prevented it, therefore God in some sense wills that sin occur. The common objection to this view is that God is made out to be in some round about way, responsible for evil. But why are we willing to sacrfice God’s holiness (i.e. His perfect knowledge and power) for the sake of letting God off the hook for evil? Simply put, God is bigger than you and I, He is holy, meaning He is set apart from us. He operates on a completely different level than we do. Things that are evil for us are perfectly legitimate for God. Like the taking of a life–God created all things, including us and has rights over us. If God wants to take one of His creatures lives, He can, He is God. In addition we are all rebels against Him in our sin (Romans 3:23, 5:10; 6:23) and our just punishment is spiritual and physical death.

We must come to grips with this simple fact, that God is holy. There is mystery in God–how is it that He is good (Psalm 119:68; James 1:17; Luke 18:19) and yet, over and over in Scripture we see Him soveriegnly controlling evil events for His good purposes? We can’t fully answer that question because we are not God. We are limited in our perspective where God is not.

Bottom line is that God soveriegnly controls evil. We have already discussed Job, but what about Joseph? His brothers did a wicked thing and cast him into a pit then sold him into slavery (they wanted to kill them but Reuben convinced them otherwise). Joseph went through many trials but eventually ended up basically running the country for Pharoah and through his wisdom, ended up saving the nation from starvation. When Joseph’s brothers show up begging for food, Joseph says to them, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

God can and does work good out of evil, He even has purposes for it. In short He controls it–think about the cross. Was the cross not an evil event? The cross was the greatest sin ever committed because the sinless one was crucified at the hands of sinful men!

Acts 4:27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

Acts 2:23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

1 Samuel 2:6 The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. 7 The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts.

16 Responses

I don’t disagree with all of what you say, but God made Humans imperfect, therefore we are sinful, and unfortunately, some are evil. But we are not condemned for this, as God made us this way.
Christ came to show us the way to live and that God does love us and forgives us, as well as affirming that all humans have a spiritual body that survives after our flesh and blood passes away.

The problem of evil is one of the issues that contributed to my becoming a skeptic. To deal with this problem when I was a Christian, I told myself the same thing you mentioned in point # 3 – God is not the author of evil, but yet he permits it and sovereignly uses evil to accomplish his purpose. But ultimately I think we are left with this: God created evil, and therefore he is primarily responsible for it’s presence. We may be able to say that he isn’t involved in every subsequent sinful act, but we have to admit that he is the one who got the ball rolling. In other words, he wanted evil to exist in the world. Of course I’m speaking from the perspective that Christianity is true. Good post Drew

The point 3 theodicy here is incompatible with christianity. This “greater good defense” means that sin is used by the sovereign God in order to realize a good purpose, to reach a greater goal in the end. But this is clearly in contradiction to God’s omnipotence. Wouldn’t an almighty God realize His desired purpose in a direct, straight way rather than be dependent on the means of evil to accomplish this goal? The greater good defense presents God as an investor who makes and investment, going into debt first, planning that after a time of amortization he earns a much greater profit, a return on investment he wouldn’t have been able to realize without going into debt in the beginning. Thus, according to reformed theodicy the almighty Lord would need to borrow from evil to fulfil his desires. He would need sins as a means to accomplish his purpose. But is the only true God comparable to an investor that needs unsavory means to achieve a higher return on investment in the future? This is clearly a denial of His omnipotence.

But what about the notion, that not only the end but also the way itself is desired by God? In other words, the very way through sin and evil itself might be a part of the entire good, that is served. What if the means (sin) is in itself part and parcel of the entire greater good? Well, in this case, God would be evil himself and the author thereof. If evil is actually good, then we’ve turned God’s holiness and hatred of evil on the head. Thus, the idea that the “way through evil” is good and desired by God, means nothing else than that God is evil.

So the greater good argument must either deny God’s omnipotence or his goodness. Both options are untenable. Therefore, the reformed theodicy is fallacious and even falls short of a mere defense of the God of the bible.

Thank you for your comment. I appreciate it and I am always happy to have people disagree with me, but let me explain why I probably won’t say very much about it. I have a rule that I don’t address people’s arguments who do not address mine, I after all, I am the author of this post and you did not address my argument as I made the same charge against your position (#2). You didn’t answer the question, “how can God know something and not respond to it but could?” How is that not a denial of his omnipotence?

Secondly, you neglected to deal with any of the many Scriptural examples that I listed where Scripture attributes control of evil ultimately to God. My arguement was less from philosophy and more from Scripture. Job, Joseph, Pharoah, the cross? You didn’t attempt to address those things. Maybe you feel Joseph’s understanding of providence needs correcting? I don’t know because you didn’t attempt to address these passages, you simply argued philosophically. That is fine, but I just don’t think that the Lord has to meet our philosophical demands as laid out in Romans 9 and Job 38.

Here are a few more examples for you to think about:

2 Chronicles 10:15 So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by God that the LORD might fulfill his word, which he spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. (Rehoboam embraced foolish counsel and this was brought about God).

2 Chronicles 18:22 Now therefore behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these your prophets. The LORD has declared disaster concerning you.”

2 Chronicles 25:20 But Amaziah would not listen, for it was of God, in order that he might give them into the hand of their enemies, because they had sought the gods of Edom.

Again, thanks for dropping by, its just that more than anything I am concerned with developing a Biblical theodicy. I am sure you are concerned with the same, so if you would like to address some of these passages, please do. Perhaps by doing so you will help others and perhaps correct areas where I have erred in my reading of Scripture.

you neglected to deal with any of the many Scriptural examples that I listed where Scripture attributes control of evil ultimately to God.

I don’t deny that God is in control of all things. That’s not the point. My objection was against the notion that sin and evil serve some good purpose. For this is the core of reformed theodicy: That there is a mysterious greater good served by sin and evil. Here is a vital difference to note. God is in control of all things but this doesn’t give evil a good purpose — a heretical concept indeed. Evil is not in accordance with God’s (secret) will, but in the strongest opposition to it. A bad tree will always continue to bring bad fruit. There’s not good fruit ever to originate from a bad tree.

The Lord does act in forensic ways in the world, as the scriptures say, but He does so in reaction to an already sinful world. It is one thing to bring judgment into the world but quite another thing to be the very author of evil!

And yes, the Lord brings good out of human evil but he does so in spite of the evil involved, not because of it! This is absolutely crucial. Sin and evil themselves don’t carry any good meaning. To ascribe a good purpose to evil, is biblically (not just philosophically) objectionable. Yet this is just what the “greater good defense” does.

An addition: The crucifixion of Jesus is a very awkward attempt to support God’s will for sin to occur. In Jesus’ death God directed the evil unto Himself. It was a crime God ordained against Himself, because Jesus is God incarnate. But in no way does this mean that God ordains murder among men in general which would truly be heretical. The singular case of Jesus’ crucifixion, an act where God ordained for HIMSELF TO BE THE VICTIM cannot serve to establish a general case that God wants evil to happen.

I should apologize for saying you take position #2 because I don’t know your position and that was not fair.

I have quoted a number of Scriptures that speak of God being soveriengly involved in things that we would deem “evil.” I have laid out (indirectly) that I believe Scripturally that there must be two wills in God or else we cannot make sense of such passages as those in 2 Chronicles. And, indeed, you have not dealt with some fairly clear Scripture references that I have cited in the above article and the comment meta. Therefore I think this discussion will not be profitable for either of us, so I will not take it any further except to address briefly where you have accused me of heresy.

I never said God was the author of evil. I said that he is in control of all things–those are two different statements.

How can God promise to “work all things together for good” if he is not in control of all things (Rom. 8:28)? How would all things not include “evil” which there seems to be so much of in our world

you have not dealt with some fairly clear Scripture references that I have cited in the above article and the comment meta.

Okay, then I’ll do that now. I already commented on Acts 2,23 and 4,27 regarding God’s predestination of Jesus’ crucifixion. I said this was an exceptional case where God predestined evil against HIMSELF. We cannot infer from this that God predestined, say, Cain’s murdering his brother Abel. That would disregard the exceptional nature of Christ’s death, where God actually took suffering on Himself. But God doesn’t predestine anyone to commit evil against others (something against His will!) in general.

I think the conclusion, that since in Jesus’ crucifixion God ordained Himself to be a victim therefore God ordained for Cain to kill Abel, and murder in general, is very far-fetched and unreasonable.
And it is clearly a singular, exceptional case. The fact that its purpose has been made known is absolutely vital! For this is contrary to the reformed theodicy which holds that the alleged good purpose of evil isn’t really knowable.

Now to the other texts you are quoting.

2 Chronicles 10:15 So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by God that the LORD might fulfill his word, which he spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. (Rehoboam embraced foolish counsel and this was brought about God).

One must consider what this sentence in Chronicles is referring to. It refers to a word of the Lord spoken to a prophet, which should be fulfilled, whose background is found in 1 Kings 11:29-33:

About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country, 30 and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. 31 Then he said to Jeroboam, Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes. 32 But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe. 33 I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molech the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in my ways, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my statutes and laws as David, Solomon’s father, did.

Note, the Lord reacts to the idolatry of men. Here is the background of God’s turning affairs in a certain direction according to 1 Chr. 10:15. God explains why he brings evil on the kingdom of Salomon. There is a reason: THEIR SIN! I said already God does indeed bring judgment on the world but he does so in response to an already sinful world. In fact God’s commandments to Israel to conquer their neighbor peoples is also a kind of judgment on an already wicked world.

However, it is something altogether different to judge a sinful world than to ordain sin itself! Judgement has a good purpose: JUSTICE. But does this make God the very origin of sin, or as you say, having “two wills”? This is more than absurd. The bible doesn’t allow for this concept.

The next verse:2 Chronicles 18:22 Now therefore behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these your prophets. The LORD has declared disaster concerning you.”

This example shows that one must look a little deeper at the context in order to determine whether God is ordaining evil here and what the text is all about anyway. Tearing this verse out of its context and looking at it in isolation, is really proof-texting and misses the message carried by this text. So what’s 2 Chr. 18:22 about? Reading the entire chapter 18 reveals the following:

Ahab, the king of Israel together with Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah were considering waging war against the Arameans. Jehoshaphat asked Ahab to consult the prophets before, whether such a battle would be successful. Yet many false prophets appeared who univocally suggested engaging in battle because God would be with Israel and Judah against the Arameans and secure victory. Jehoshaphat doubted that these prophets were speaking the truth and wondered whether they were true prophets of the LORD.

Now it becomes interesting. Ahab knew that Micaiah (Micah) was the true prophet of the LORD, yet Ahab hated Micaiah, because he had been giving so many prophecies to Ahab’s disadvantage. Therefore Ahab rejected Micaiah and rather had his ears tickled by false prophets who spoke good about him. Micaiah wasn’t promising Ahab victory and hadn’t prophecied much good about Ahab (verse 18:6). That’s why Ahab had been disregarding Micaiah’s words and hence, had been disregarding the word of the LORD. Micaiah, who is now consulted again due to Jehoshaphat’s pressure, explains that Ahab wouldn’t survive if he went against the Arameans. And he explains why all the other “prophets” were suggesting the opposite. God gave them a spirit of deception, BECAUSE AHAB HAD BEEN REJECTING GOD’s WORD SPOKEN THROUGH HIS PROPHET MICAIAH. So the Lord was acting forensically by admitting false prophets to speak among Israel because of Ahab’s rejection of Micaiah.

So we see again, the Lord put a lying spirit in the mouths of the false prophets because of Israel’s prior rejection of the true prophet. So is God doing inscrutable evil here which has some mysterious good purpose according to the “greater good view” of reformed theology? By no means! Again, the Lord brings judgment on a wicked world, yet there is no good purpose in evil itself and God has no “second will” to the contrary.

2 Chronicles 25:20 But Amaziah would not listen, for it was of God, in order that he might give them into the hand of their enemies, because they had sought the gods of Edom.

This doesn’t require much explanation. The Lord brought punishment for idolatry here.

1 Samuel 2:6 The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. 7 The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts.

That God brings life and death (Genesis 3:17-24) is nothing new. Death however, is the penalty for sin. Sheol is the grave. God acts in ways that are unsavory for the world, because the world is cursed. The uncertainty and volatility of human life is the result of the curse. Why the curse anyway? Because of human sin! Is God the author of sin? By no means! This verse by the way resembles Isaiah 45:7, where the Lord is said to create calamity and darkness. Yet all this is part of the curse and God’s righteous judicial reaction to a wicked world. So the notion that there are two opposing wills in God, such that God really wills evil, is very, very objectionable to say the least.

All evil events are due to human sin and God hates sin. We shouldn’t tell God that He really wills sin. The greater good defense, that is, reformed theodicy, is fallacious.

Thank you for the thorough reply. I am not sure when or if I will have the time to respond to. I hope you don’t take that the wrong way, its just that you said a great deal and I have a busy schedule. This was a very thorough response to what was intended as a brief introduction to reformed theodicy, so now at least those who take the time to read this article will have the opportunity to hear a counter response which is helpful.

I did not intend to “proof” text, certainly I would agree that we must look at the surrounding context and I appreciate you taking the time to do that with these verses.

I understand your position in each of these instances to the Lord doing these things to bring judgment. That makes sense to me. What doesn’t make sense to me is still the fact that God is allowing some things to happen hear that go directly against his revealed commands (i.e. do not lie, do not murder etc.). So if God allows something he could prohibit, how is that not in some way part of his will?

I feel like we are splitting hairs here. I also don’t appreciate that you continue to say that I am making God out to be evil when that is not the position that I have laid out. I just think that God is all powerful and that he could stop evil and doesn’t. He isn’t powerless to overcome human evils. I have found peace in this by resting in God’s perfect holiness. I could level at you that your God is subservient to human sin and human decisions–he doesn’t stop them because he can’t.

Anyway, I am sorry for this rather petty reply, I need to get to work.

I agree that this isn’t really getting anywhere. I’ll just give a last reply to one remark of yours:

I could level at you that your God is subservient to human sin and human decisions–he doesn’t stop them because he can’t.

If God actually went the whole hog and stopped sin, do you think you and I would live to see the next hour? If God really stopped sin, we’d all drop dead on the spot, wouldn’t we? Praised be God’s mercy that He is slow to anger, incredibly patient and merciful.

But ascribing to this merciful God a weakness by presuming he CANNOT stop sin and even presuming He’s subservient to human sin, really misses His attributes again. The biblical God is almighty, yet also merciful. Without His infinite mercy, we wouldn’t be around anymore to even contemplate this God.

The truth is, that He will indeed stop sin one day. The biblical God isn’t subservient to anyone and the origin of sin is not in God but:

“The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.” (1 John 3,8)

Evil does not exist. The concept of evil exists. The concept of evil allows us to realize the significance of a being that is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. A being that is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent is God. Therefore, God exists.